We've also got some details on the Season 14 PvP situation under the cut--you may have noticed NPCs suddenly being removed, and CM Lore explains why.

Click the cut to read the blue posts!

Hearthstone Beta Progress

Zeriyah

Hello Hearthstone players (and members of our gracious community still trying to get into the beta)!

Thank you for stopping by to read this important closed beta test update. At the start of the beta, we mentioned that we would reset information at some point, wiping all progress and cards in the process. We built this into our plan as we knew going into the beta that a number of cards were likely to emerge as overpowered and we also knew that we‘d make significant adjustments to the reward system and overall game progression. So, as part of the effort to level the playing field and also prepare our players’ accounts for the release version of our progression system, we made the decision to schedule a one-time wipe of all beta participant accounts. We have just about reached the point in closed beta where we’ll be doing this wipe, and thus wanted to share what that will mean for you, what to expect on the day of the wipe, and what will happen immediately afterwards.

A wipe? What’s a wipe?

If you are participating in the Hearthstone closed beta test, your progress will be reset. This includes your gold, experience and class levels gained through play, arcane dust quantities, cards unlocked through progression, and your medal ranking in Ranked Play mode. When you load up the game afterwards, it will be as if you were starting in Hearthstone as a new player. You’ll have to play the introductory missions once more and show Illidan just how prepared he is! (Spoilers: He’s not.)

When is the wipe happening?

We’re getting ready to release a pretty major beta patch to Hearthstone, and the wipe will coincide with that patch so we can closely monitor testing with the implemented updates.

A patch! What’s in the patch!?

We’ll announce details of the patch in a separate blog, so stay tuned!

I spent real money in Hearthstone! Is that going away!?

No way! As we mentioned in the earlier blog, any money you spent in Hearthstone will be reimbursed as gold, so you will be able to repurchase the same number of packs and Arena tickets you bought previously without additional investment. For each card pack purchased with real money, you’ll get back 100 gold. Each Arena entry will get you back 150 gold. Please note that any packs you purchase after the wipe will be different than the ones you had previously, so it is unlikely that you will receive the same cards again.

A couple examples:

Tim bought the $2.99 bundle for 2 packs during the beta. After the wipe, he will receive 200 gold (100 gold per pack x 2 packs.)

Like all gold, the reimbursed gold credit can be spent on either packs or Arena tickets. So if you bought a pack bundle previously, and would prefer to use your gold credit towards Arena entry, that’s available as an option.

Did you know: Getting back a lot of gold and need to buy a lot of packs at the same time? You can buy mass quantities of packs with gold by double-clicking on the brown “1 Pack” button in the store!

I helped test the store and got a Golden Gelbin Mekkatorque card! Is he wiped too?

Your good friend Gelbin will be waiting for you as soon as you complete the Illidan introductory mission. As soon as you’ve completed that mission you will receive the “Beta Hero” quest reward which will grant you Gelbin, as well as the gold credit for any purchases made prior to the wipe.

Will there be any wipes in the future?

We don’t anticipate any further wipes. This goes for both the Hearthstone beta and after the game’s official release. Any progress made during the beta after the wipe will be retained through the release of Hearthstone, such as new cards you obtain, levels that you gain and ranks you achieve. Basically, you’ll now be able to keep your stuff.

Wait, how will this work for Korea, Taiwan, and China? Closed beta hasn’t even started there yet!

Korea, Taiwan, and China will not be wiped. The wipe only applies to the beta participants currently playing in the North American and European beta tests.

Season 14 Issues

Lore

Hello everyone,

As many of you are aware, there have been several hotfixes regarding PvP gearing over the past week. We wanted to take a moment to not only explain what exactly went wrong, but also what we’re going to do about it.

The problems started with an error in calculating the season "catch-up cap". As you may know, this cap is calculated on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, for some players, these calculations began before Season 14 had officially begun. So, when the season did start, those players essentially had an entire season’s worth of catch-up credit added onto their normal weekly cap of 2200.

As soon as we recognized the error, we despawned the Conquest vendors while we worked on and tested a hotfix to correct the artificially inflated Conquest caps (and remove extra Conquest that had been earned). We also created a hotfix that was intended to solve the initial error with the catch-up calculations during maintenance in other regions, but were unable to apply it before the issue had spread to other regions.

Once the hotfix to correct Conquest caps was completed, it was applied to all regions, and the Conquest vendors were respawned. At the time, we believed that the hotfix would take effect without realm restarts. That, unfortunately, did not turn out to be the case, so over the weekend, a number of players were able to acquire several pieces of gear that they should not have otherwise been able to. On top of that, a small number of players were able to earn the Grievous Conquest achievement, which then allowed them to purchase Conquest gear with Honor points.

We’ve since been working hard to correct our mistakes, and as of right now, here’s where we stand:

All players who had an inflated Conquest cap have had those caps corrected

The Grievous Conquest achievement vendors have been despawned temporarily, as no one should have access to them through normal play at this time

The Grievous Gladiator weapons have had their level requirement hotfixed to 91 temporarily, as no one should have access to them through normal play at this time

However, there is still the matter of the extra gear that some of these players were able to obtain. We need to remove this extra gear to maintain a level playing field for all of our players, but we also have to be extremely careful not to remove extra gear that players earned legitimately (as drops from world bosses, for example). To that end, here’s what we’re planning to do:

Comments

Comment by jglonek

on 2013-09-26T12:41:16-05:00

Nice news about Hearthstone! After the wipe I will start really getting into it - I did play it a fair amount but I didn't want to go too crazy yet knowing all the progress will be wiped. I do hope that the patch fixes some of the later-game issues (IE: having no cards besides the one you pick up each round and just playing that with full, wasted mana crystals sitting there).

Comment by Xabidar

on 2013-09-26T12:52:52-05:00

So... for those of us not in the beta, will we never be able to obtain that version of Mekkatorque?

Comment by Zigrifid

on 2013-09-26T13:13:59-05:00

I have a question :) are the beta keys for hearthstone like WoW beta keys , i mean are they being given in waves or its an one time give away and noone else will get one ?

Comment by Iceveiled

on 2013-09-26T13:20:36-05:00

I never got a beta invite. :(

Comment by migas11

on 2013-09-26T13:30:17-05:00

They did big waves of invites every couple of days, plus the occasional facebook giveaways.

Comment by Dyingsoul

on 2013-09-26T14:09:38-05:00

So... for those of us not in the beta, will we never be able to obtain that version of Mekkatorque?

All decks and cards from the Beta are wiped on full release of the game.

Comment by perculia

on 2013-09-26T14:14:53-05:00

It looks like that's been changed based on today's post (towards the end):

Any progress made during the beta after the wipe will be retained through the release of Hearthstone, such as new cards you obtain, levels that you gain and ranks you achieve. Basically, you’ll now be able to keep your stuff.

Comment by AsgardFM

on 2013-09-26T18:23:22-05:00

Any progress made during the beta after the wipe will be retained through the release of Hearthstone, such as new cards you obtain, levels that you gain and ranks you achieve. Basically, you’ll now be able to keep your stuff.

Unless this same patch also starts the Open Beta, that seems a bit offputting. Day one of release, you're able to end up against people that have reached level 20+ with various classes when you're still stuck with Starter Decks? Not cool.

Comment by Djames

on 2013-09-26T20:03:45-05:00

Seems like a release might not be too far away if they don't foresee any further wipes.

Agree with others though, seems a bit off given that it's a closed beta...

Comment by voreo

on 2013-09-26T20:04:08-05:00

... Blizzards Opt In system needs reworked.

I been in the opt in since they first opened it to show Hearthstone and never seen an invite sent to my mail. Its even worse when they offer content those only in the beta can receive :(

Comment by Alfa

on 2013-09-27T02:05:41-05:00

I've applied for beta months ago, still no invite?

Comment by ArgentumSC

on 2013-09-27T18:45:33-05:00

... Blizzards Opt In system needs reworked.

I been in the opt in since they first opened it to show Hearthstone and never seen an invite sent to my mail. Its even worse when they offer content those only in the beta can receive :(

Likewise. It could just be that I'm one of those dirty Mac users nobody cares about.

Comment by Backstabmacro

on 2013-09-28T03:08:44-05:00

So... for those of us not in the beta, will we never be able to obtain that version of Mekkatorque?

All decks and cards from the Beta are wiped on full release of the game.

Wrong. From the blog post: "We don’t anticipate any further wipes. This goes for both the Hearthstone beta and after the game’s official release. Any progress made during the beta after the wipe will be retained through the release of Hearthstone, such as new cards you obtain, levels that you gain and ranks you achieve. Basically, you’ll now be able to keep your stuff."

As much as I don't like the truth of it, they're not wiping before release. Open beta is basically release.